Qin Shi Ambitious

Page 335

The legendary Lord Wu'an, Bai Qi, was killed by a martial arts master after being ordered to commit suicide. Since then, how to prevent assassination has become an essential course for any army commander.

Some, like Li Mu, possess extremely high martial arts skills and are naturally unafraid of assassination attempts.

Those who lack such talent can only hire trusted experts for protection.

If even this cannot be done, then we can only develop a rigorous defense plan.

The Central Plains are a land of outstanding people and abundant resources, with many masters. Although the Baiyue people also have their share of talented individuals, their skills are ultimately minor. It is easy for them to feel uncomfortable at first but then realize their limitations. They are far from comparable to those of the Central Plains.

"Is that so?" Wei Zhuang chuckled and slowly said, "What if there were another option?"

"Is this the reason why Master Wei Zhuang traveled thousands of miles to the Baiyue region?"

Zhao Tuo reacted quickly and boldly asked the question.

"Good question." Wei Zhuang's tall and imposing figure was like a still mountain. "Since you enjoy guessing so much, why don't you guess the specifics of the reason?"

The oppressive atmosphere made Zhao Tuo momentarily breathless, and even though it was only for a fleeting instant, it reminded him that his life was not currently in his own hands...

"General!"

A soldier who had suddenly burst in cried out in terror at the sight inside, and the next second, a pure white feather pierced his neck, causing him to collapse with a thud...

Bai Feng lay half-reclined on the roof beam, his magnificent white feather robe unchanged. He was the only one of the three who wasn't wearing a hemp cloak: that would affect his mood.

The sound of the deceased's footsteps had actually been heard long ago, but Bai Feng only made her move now, clearly indicating that she intended to toy with him and deliberately used the bloodshed to warn Zhao Tuo...

Quicksand is no benevolent organization!

Compared to Zhao Tuo, the head of Li You, the governor of Sanchuan County, had already been thrown at the gate of the governor's mansion.

The person who carried out this task was Gai Nie, who was much kinder than Wei Zhuang.

Gai Nie rarely kills a target he can spare, but Li You is not one of those targets, so he drew his sword.

Li Si and Gai Nie worked together in Qin for nearly twenty years, but their relationship was only that of ordinary colleagues. Li Si felt no guilt for killing Gai Nie's son.

After all, due to his personality, this swordsman had very few friends; to put it bluntly, he only had one, and that was Jing Ke.

After Jing Ke died, there were none left.

When Li You's head was discovered by the prefectural governor's men, the morale of the entire city of Xingyang collapsed completely: the reason everyone was still holding on to Xingyang was because of Li You, who was the eldest son of the prime minister.

As long as we hold firm, the Prime Minister will surely send reinforcements.

Now that Li You is dead, it's already a mercy of Qin law that they haven't been punished; how could they possibly expect any reinforcements...?

The unrest extended from the prefectural governor's residence all the way to the city walls. The Qi army's siege of Xingyang employed the standard strategy of encircling the city three-thirds and leaving one gate open, thus allowing escape through the east gate to also lead to Qi's influence.

The night battle took place in the north of the city. Officials and soldiers, driven to despair by Li You's death, threw down their weapons and rushed toward the only visible path to survival.

Chen Ping, who remained in the south of the city to put pressure on Xingyang, had noticed this long ago. In fact, the fact that news of Li You's murder spread so quickly throughout Xingyang was partly due to the active dissemination of information by the intelligence agents he had sent out.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, even if the Qi army doesn't attack Xingyang tonight, many people will likely die in a stampede at the east gate.

"The Great Qi is merciful; you could all have lived, but now you die here because of your own actions. How lamentable, how lamentable!"

Turning back to the main camp, Chen Ping still had many things to deal with.

In Caoyang City, beneath Hangu Pass, spies are already operating with all sorts of true and false information...

The riots in Xingyang, north of the city, were some distance from the battlefield, and Lu Wei was unaware of them, but he didn't care: he had said beforehand that assassinating Li You was just a side move, and such methods could not succeed forever.

Victory usually comes down to defeating your opponent on the battlefield.

When the contact point between Xingyang and Aocang was attacked at night, Xingyang sent reinforcements, while Aocang wanted to hold its ground according to the established procedure, but was ordered by an envoy from Li You to send troops to rescue them.

The newcomer carried a tiger tally, and the garrison commander of Ao Cang immediately dispatched troops as ordered. However, not long after the main force left, the sudden appearance of a Qi army caught Ao Cang off guard.

Leading the charge was the tall and imposing Dian Qing, wielding two swords; he single-handedly broke through the first line of Qin troops' barricades...

Chapter 424 The New Eastern Emperor

After capturing Aocang, Xingyang City collapsed due to Li Youzhi's death. Thus, even though the Qin army outside the city had not been defeated by the night attack, they had no choice but to surrender the next day.

Because the battle lasted only a short time and Li You implemented a defensive strategy, the Qin army suffered minimal losses. Even though many of the Xingyang city defense troops escaped under cover of night, more than 50,000 soldiers remained on the entire defensive line.

However, after excluding the elderly, the weak, the sick, and the disabled, the elite among them number less than 10,000, and more than half of them are native Qin people.

This number of elite Qi troops is easily manageable.

As for the remaining 40,000 Qin soldiers, most of them were remnants of the six states. At this critical moment of war, Lu Wei could not easily let them go just because they were pitiful. Lowering the standards, he could select more than 20,000 of them to attack the surrounding counties that had not yet submitted, thus expanding his sphere of influence. The remaining 10,000 or so, no matter how weak, could be used as a logistics transport team.

Because the northern passageway was destroyed in time, a large amount of grain remained in Ao Cang, which greatly relieved the pressure on the Qi army.

Most importantly, in addition to its own grain reserves, Ao Cang could transport grain from all over the world to the front lines at a relatively low cost via waterways, whether it was the six kingdoms of Shandong, Guanzhong, or Bashu.

This place is the hub for gathering grain from all over the world, whether it's transporting grain westward to Guanzhong or providing grain to the east.

Now that this land is in Lu Wei's hands, there are no more worries about advancing westward.

"Your Majesty, the messengers of the net have arrived again."

He supervised the battle for most of the night last night, and even personally took to the battlefield to boost the morale of the rank-and-file soldiers. Lu Wei was still full of energy. After returning, he first discussed the arrangements for Xingyang with Chen Ping, and then enjoyed a hot bath that Ji Yan had arranged at the perfect time.

While conditions in the military are indeed relatively rudimentary, in a world with internal energy and mechanical arts, it's not entirely a matter of making do.

After dawn, he entered the city and checked into the prefectural governor's residence. While he was reviewing various documents from Sanchuan Prefecture, Ji Yan came in and reported on Zhao Cheng's visit.

"You can handle this matter."

Without even looking up, Lu Wei gave the order indifferently.

Unlike last time, now that he knows Zhao Gao's bottom line, His Highness the King of Qi naturally no longer needs to personally meet a 'minor official of Qin'.

From beginning to end, Lu Wei never intended to stop halfway and enjoy himself. Even when Zhao Gao sent people to negotiate, he didn't really expect to succeed. Both sides had their own purposes in their wrangling.

Zhao Gao wanted to stall for time, and Lu Wei, upon learning that Zhao Gao intended to harm Li Si, decisively chose to support him.

Li Si was a man who valued profit and held grudges, but his abilities were undeniably outstanding as the prime minister chosen by Ying Zheng.

With him around, the Guanzhong region could barely function.

By killing him now, Zhao Gao is essentially giving Lu Wei another push towards his inevitable final victory.

Moreover, with Li Si dead, Hu Hai's death is probably not far off.

Hu Hai's misdeeds were limited and had some effect, but now that Qin has lost direct control over the six states east of the mountains, there is little point in him continuing to live; on the contrary, his death would be of great significance.

No matter how wicked an emperor is, he is still an emperor. When he is murdered by his subjects, the impact on the empire cannot be described in terms of mere material things.

The current negotiations have given Zhao Gao time to take action against Li Si. Once Li Si is killed, Lu Wei will immediately break through Hangu Pass, which will further force Zhao Gao to take action against Hu Hai.

With the army pressing on Guanzhong, even if Hu Hai was indulging in a life of luxury, he should have come to his senses. In order to prevent him from realizing his mistake and rebuking him, Zhao Gao had no choice but to strike first.

As for what he can do after killing the Second Emperor... that depends on Lu Wei.

When a person is in utter despair, do they ever fantasize that surrendering to the enemy will allow them to survive?

------

With all of Dazeshan's main forces deployed, the entire mountain range inevitably fell into silence.

The suddenly rebuilt State of Qi now has two important cities: one is Linzi, and the other is Licheng.

Although the city walls of Linzi, the former capital of the State of Qi, had been demolished, it still possessed a complete administrative capacity. Lü Qing brought the management team of the peasant family to live here, and with the help of the Confucian scholar Fu Nian, they gained the support of a group of relatively law-abiding officials and nobles from the former State of Qi, and initially formed a simple governance team with reasonable composition.

Xiao He from Jing County in the south also came here after Li Mu's army entered Shu. However, he did not stop. Instead, he led a group of carefully selected civil officials to follow behind the Qi King's army in the central route, and was responsible for consolidating power over the newly captured cities.

The importance of Licheng lies in its uniqueness. It is too close to Daze Mountain, and its only master can be Lu Wei himself, who holds the titles of both King Qi and Xia Kui.

New recruits from Qi would gather here before being assigned to different front lines.

Because of the dense military camps, from the top of the highest peak of Dazeshan Mountain, one can see clusters of firelight in the direction of Licheng.

“Mother, those lights are also stars.”

Lu Qian is fourteen years old this year. The boy with red lips and white teeth grew up in Daze Mountain, which was always thought to be just a gathering place for farmers. He looks no different from those rich and noble young masters.

Of course, he is now a nobleman. He is the eldest son of the current King of Qi. After the restoration of Qi, countless people have their eyes on A Qian: this is an inevitable situation. However, this eldest son of the king, who has never suffered since childhood, has been well protected by his mother, the Moon Goddess.

Looking at the exquisite face of the child dressed in gorgeous clothes, the Moon Goddess couldn't suppress her joy and a smile appeared on her lips: "Then what difference do you think there is between them going to the stars in the sky?"

“The stars in the sky are ethereal and illusory, the supreme truth that we Yin-Yang School pursue.” A-Qian answered his mother’s question with clear eyes and an exceptionally serious tone: “But the stars on the ground are real, the ‘truth’ that Father has already grasped in his hands.”

"Mother, am I right?"

"Don't ask me. The 'true self' of Yin-Yang arts requires you to find the answer to any question from your own 'stars'." The Moon Goddess said calmly, shaking her head at A Qian's question, "You will become the greatest 'Eastern Emperor' in the history of Yin-Yang schools, and you will continue to pursue the highest realm of Yin-Yang arts."

"Now that you have learned the basics of Yin-Yang arts, you can follow your heart from now on."

"Donghuang?" A Qian was slightly distracted, muttering the title to himself. His Yin-Yang technique unconsciously began to operate, and a golden light appeared from his palm.

“Not bad.” The Moon Goddess emphasized, “This is your new name in the Yin-Yang School. It will accompany you forever, until death.”

"It is the noble identity that your father fought for you, and the only one I have nurtured for you!"

Chapter 425 He can take his place

"Make him the Eastern Emperor?"

Yan Fei turned her head to look at A Qian, who was meditating on the cliff, and curled her lips: "Lu Wei actually agreed? You actually agreed?"

As the eldest son of the King of Qi, with no other competitors, A Qian naturally had the hope of being promoted further after the war.

But making him the Eastern Emperor is practically tantamount to him voluntarily giving up that position.

It's not impossible for the leader of a martial arts faction to become emperor. Lu Wei himself ascended to the throne of Qi as the leader of the Farmer's School of Chivalry. However, the Yin-Yang School is clearly a special exception.

The heir to a new empire can be mediocre or even tyrannical, but he cannot be 'mystical' all day long.

"The tragedy of Ying Zheng's descendants is a microcosm of thousands of years of history. Do you think it will end with Fusu and Huhai?" The Moon Goddess said calmly, "The Yin-Yang School pursues the Great Dao. By maintaining the same bloodline as the Empire, they will be able to live and die with the Empire in the future."

"The price is that the empire will perish along with it." Yan Fei's eyes flickered.

"That's something for ten or even dozens of generations later." The Moon Goddess looked up at the moon. "We can only do our best and at most affect the next two or three generations of disciples. Beyond that, the rules of heaven and earth will take care of things."

...

"Licheng?"

He stroked his chin and looked at the exquisitely crafted city wall plaque that had been urgently replaced. The expensive wood and craftsmanship seemed quite out of place with the 'short' city wall.

Tianming leaned his arm on Xiang Yu's shoulder, pointed at 'Licheng' with a disdainful look, and said, "We finally got here after all that hardship. The old man on the way clearly pointed us in the right direction, but you still led us astray and caused us to wander into a swamp..."